ESL
School
Each year, thousands of foreign-born students enroll in degree programs
at American colleges and universities. Some do so for the
career opportunities that will open up to them once they complete their
degrees, while others do so simply for the chance to experience life in
the United States for a few years. Regardless of the specific
reason you want to study in America, you'll most likely have to
demonstrate a basic level of English language proficiency (as measured
by your TOEFL scores) in order to be able to enroll in an American
university. If you don't think your English skills are good
enough to get the TOEFL scores that you need, you might want to
consider studying at an ESL school first.
There are a great many ESL schools in the U.S. for you to choose from,
and all of them obviously cater to those students learning English as a
Second Language. However, that's just about the only thing
that all the schools have in common. All of the other
details, including tuition, courses offered, length of study, and
living arrangements, differ from institution to institution.
That means you're going to have to do a lot of research in order to
find an ESL school that sounds right for you.
Though your individual circumstances might vary, here are a few general
points to keep in mind while searching for an ESL school.
First, check out the qualifications of the instructors. At a
minimum, the instructors should possess Bachelor's degrees in a related
field such as linguistics. In addition, the instructors
should have at least a few months of overseas teaching
experience. That way you'll know they have some idea of what
other cultures are like and will be able to help you with more than
just pure language instruction.
A second thing you should do is look for an ESL school in the city
where your future university is located. For example, if your
dream is to attend the University of Wisconsin at some point, then you
should look for an ESL school in the city of Madison. By
doing this, you'll get a realistic preview of what university life will
be like. You'll also be able to attend campus events and meet
current university students, which will make your transition to
full-time student status a lot easier.
Finally, you should look at the ethnic composition of the students at
the ESL school in order to make sure that there are neither too many
nor too few students from your home country. The purpose of
attending an ESL school is of course to improve your English.
So if there are too many students from your own country, then you'll
have too many temptations to speak in your native language outside of
class. At the same time, however, if there are too few
students from your country, then you might get homesick and not be able
to continue studying. The ideal ESL school will have a good
mix of students from many different countries so that you'll be forced
to communicate in English as much as possible, but will always have a
chance to speak with people from your home country whenever you need to.
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